Publicly available information released following an FOI access request

The Family Court is required by section 11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to publish a disclosure log on its website. The disclosure log lists information which has been released in response to an FOI access request. This requirement has applied since 1 May 2011.

The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:

personal information about any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable' information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'

other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'

any information if it is not reasonably practicable to publish the information because of the extent of modifications that would need to be made to delete the information listed in the above dot points.

Documents released under the FOI Act can be obtained by writing to the Court's FOI contact officer:

Please note also that charges may be imposed to reimburse the Family Court for the cost of photocopying or reproducing documents. Notification will be given if any charges are payable and if the charges are required to be paid before the documents are provided.

Information attached to, or referred to, in the Family Court of Australia’s disclosure log will generally be removed after 12 months, unless the information has enduring public value.

The FOI Act also requires the Family Court to proactively publish a range of information under the Information Publication Scheme (IPS).You can find further information about the Family Court’s IPS on the Information Publication Scheme pages of this website.

DISCLOSURE LOG

Documents containing information about the Parliamentary Inquiry into family law and family violence and the cancellation of the hearing in which Chief Justice Diana Bryant was to appear on June 20, 2017.
Specifically, information relevant to the cancellation about:

Email correspondence and communication between the Chief Justice Diana Bryant of the Family Court of Australia and the chair of the Committee Ms Sarah Henderson MP.

Email correspondence and communication between the Chief Justice Diana Bryant and Chief Judge John Pascoe AC of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

Details of the telephone communications including a text message were provided. This information may be obtained by sending a written request to clientfeedback@familycourt.gov.au.There were otherwise no documents in existence.

All correspondence over the past two years between the Chief Judge and the chief executive officer of the Federal Circuit Court; and all correspondence between the Federal Circuit Court Chief Judge or CEO and the chief justice or CEO/registrar of the Federal Court or the chief justice or CEO of the Family Court regarding court funding or courts administration or any possible restructure of or change to courts administration, and in particular, any possible restructure of or change to courts administration.

and

all correspondence over the past two years between the Chief Justice and the chief executive officer of the Family Court; and all correspondence between the Family Court Chief Justice or CEO and the chief justice or CEO of the Federal Court or the chief judge or CEO of the Federal Circuit Court regarding court funding or courts administration, and in particular, any possible restructure of or change to courts administration.

The FOI decision in this matter was to partially release eight documents. Exemptions were made in accordance with Legal Professional Privilege (s42), personal privacy (s47F) and law enforcement and public safety (s37).

Documents of a Judge do not fall within the ambit of the FOI Act. Accordingly, FOI consideration was not given to correspondence between judicial officers and was limited to correspondence in the possession of the Court that is classified as administrative in nature.

IM/2016/0005

21/4/2016

Current social media policy of the department, which covers departmental use and/or private use by employees in an individual capacity.

Any current guidance material which is available for employees to make informed decisions about their private social media use.

The FOI decision in this matter was to release in full without redaction three documents as attached below: